Scholarship on early modern women has become a significant presence in the field of early modern studies more generally. International journals, academic monographs, edited collections, and anthologies are now devoting substantial attention to early modern women writers, working women, women artists, and questions of femininity and gender. How can early-career academics find their way in the overwhelming world of scholarly publishing on this subject? To discuss international academic publishing in the field of women’s history, Huizinga’s Research Network Women’s Writing in History is organizing a workshop with Prof. Martine van Elk during the conference Women and the Household in the Early Modern Book Trade at Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp. All PhD candidates and RMA students interested in or working on early modern women from the Low Countries are invited to register for this workshop. They will have the opportunity to discuss their research, talk about the challenges of writing about early modern women, and ask questions about the process of editing, peer review, and publishing their work.
Martine van Elk is Professor of Early Modern English Literature at California State University, Long Beach. She is fascinated by the relationship between texts and objects created by early modern women of different nationalities, and has published numerous articles on this subject. In 2017, she published her book Early Modern Women’s Writing: Domesticity, Privacy and the Public Sphere in England and the Dutch Republic, and she is co-editor of Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal. She also runs two blogs on early modern women, entitled Early Modern Women: Lives, Texts, Objects, and Early Modern Female Book Ownership.
Assessment and assignments
To register for this workshop, all participants must submit an abstract of approximately 500 words about their research on early modern women from the Low Countries, before the deadline of 29 October ([email protected]). When registering for this workshop, please also submit a question for Prof. Martine van Elk about publishing.
PhD candidates and RMA students who are a member of a Dutch National Research School can obtain 1 ECTS. In order to do so, they must write a draft of an introduction about their research of approximately 1,500 words, based on the abstract they have submitted. The deadline for submitting the introduction is 19 November 2025.
(Preliminary) literature
Explore the last four issues of Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal and Renaissance Quarterly. Look at the table of contents and read the introductory pages to 4-5 articles published in Early Modern Women, and read four abstracts for articles in Renaissance Quarterly.
Prior to the workshop, the abstracts of the participants will be distributed. Please read the abstracts beforehand to facilitate a productive discussion during the workshop.
